Fields Foods grocery store opens in Lafayette Square Saturday

(KMOV) – Fields Foods, a new locally-owned grocery store, is opening in the Lafayette Square neighborhood on Saturday.

This is the first grocery store for developers Randol and Chris Goodson. They’re behind the City Hospital development which includes condominiums, new homes along Tucker Boulevard, a Walgreens, and the Fields Foods grocery store. The project qualified for incentives that include new market tax credits and a tax increment financing package.

The $32 million development qualified for a $12.2 million TIF for the entire development project that began ten years ago, according to Maggie Crane with the St. Louis Mayor’s Office.

Goodson, a native of St. Louis, says Fields Foods is key development for this part of the city - which currently lacks a grocery store in the neighborhood.

”We’re going to be hiring a little over 100 people and we want to get them from the area around here: biking distance, walking distance, we’re in a HOPE VI development here so its nice to be able to give job opportunities to people from around the neighborhoods,” said Goodson.

Fields Foods initially said it planned to hire up to120 people across all departments, including drivers, cashiers and stockers. Most positions pay between $9 and $25 an hour with about 70 percent of the positions being full time with health and retirement benefits, according to Jeffrey Randol of Fields Foods.